Do the team here at PC Gamer ever build a PC using their top recommended components and compare it to their most recommended prebuilt?

Oct 5, 2025
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I was browsing the massive, collated Hardware Recommendations page and noticed there’s a top 5 for everything from motherboard and GPU to Case and Fan, and thought it would be rather interesting to see how a PC built entirely using components that scored “best overall” at a given moment in time might A) perform in modern games and B) compare to the prebuilt PC that similarly take the “best overall” crown, both in performance and price.

It’s the sort of thing that could be done every couple of years, and I assume at little cost, given you’d need to already have the parts available to review them.

Maybe it’s already been done and I’ve just missed it, maybe it’s a bad idea for some reason I haven’t worked out, but I think it would be neat, and maybe also help people make a decision regarding building from components vs buying complete, seeing money saved or performance gained (or lost, as the case may be!)

Thanks
 
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I think that would be a good idea for them to do every so often. Those lists change a few times a year so they wouldn't do it each time they update it, but maybe once a year it would be a good idea. Another thing, they often put hardware on those Best lists with a major caveat being the price. They score the hardware based off MSRP pricing, but they also understand that hardware is very often not at MSRP, so that is something to keep in mind. It wouldn't be of much use if they built a PC that was hundreds over baseline MSRP prices and compared it to a prebuilt where the company building it has access to MSRP priced hardware.

Also... PCG needs to build another Large Pixel Collider!!!
 
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